Method and system for centralized management of sources of supply

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining sources of supply are provided. The system for determining sources of supply is centralized so as to be accessible to a plurality of clients. Sources of supply may be determined and the results prioritized according to user defined criteria. Specifically, the system may offer or facilitate a reusable, centralized service that can data mine sources of supply, which are stored in a business object. These sources of supply may include transportation lane, purchase contract, scheduling agreement, material costing, and any other suitable sources of supply. In some cases, this example system can assign priorities to centralized sources of supply that may help make decisions easier for the planner.

1 . A system for determining supply sources for a product in a service-oriented environment, comprising:
 a memory storing one or more business objects, each business object including data related to a supply source; and   one or more processors executing software causing them to:
 receive requests for supply source determinations from a plurality of clients across a landscape of heterogeneous applications; and 
 return to each client that submitted a request, a list of one or more supply sources matching the request based on the one or more supply source business objects. 
   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least some of the software executed by the one or more processors comprises interfaces associated with one of the business objects. 
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the request received from one of the plurality of clients includes parameters to be used by the one or more processors in creating the list to be returned to the respective client. 
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the memory stores a profile for one of the plurality of clients and the one or more processors uses data from the profile to create a list to be returned to the respective client. 
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the memory stores priority information corresponding to one of the plurality of clients and the one or more processors uses the priority information for the respective client to prioritize the supply sources on the list to be returned to the respective client. 
   
   
       6 . A computerized method for determining supply sources for a product, comprising:
 receiving a request from a first client for a source determination for a product, the first client operating in a first environment;   selecting a plurality of supply sources associated with the product;   prioritizing the selected supply sources based on rules to automatically identify a more appropriate supply source for the request; and   receiving a second request from a second client for a source determination for a product, the second client operating in a second environment disparate from the first environment.   
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the rules are user-defined rules and relate to a business configuration. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , the prioritization based on financial cost and at least one non-financial cost, the non-financial costs including preferred vendor status, transportation time, product quality, rough capacity decisions for bottlenecks, complexity of order process, and a reputation metric. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the request includes user-defined parameters and the plurality of supply sources is selected based at least in part on the user-defined parameters. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the user-defined parameters include parameters related to the product category hierarchy of the product. 
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the selection is further based on at least one of the following criteria: procurement type, fulfillment of quota, and sourcing priority. 
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , at least a first of the selection criteria supplied via a user interface. 
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the more appropriate supply source comprises one of transportation lane, purchase contract, scheduling agreement, material costing, and a client-specified source of supply. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising automatically performing one or more material costing estimates for the first client. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 automatically analyzing product movement; and   communicating a sales determination as the source of supply to the first client.   
   
   
       16 . A computerized method for determining supply sources for a product, comprising:
 receiving a request from a client for a source determination for a product;   selecting at least one supply source for the product;   selecting a means of transportation for the one or more selected supply sources;   merging the selected means of transportation with the one or more selected supply sources;   selecting a quota arrangement for the one or more selected supply sources;   merging the selected quota arrangement with the one or more selected supply sources; and   automatically prioritizing the one or more selected supply sources based on client-defined rules and business logic.   
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising breaking down at least one of the selected supply sources to a more detailed level of information. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising breaking down at least one of the selected means of transportation to a more detailed level of information. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising breaking down at least one of the selected quota arrangements to a more detailed level of information. 
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising calculating the lateness of providing a source of supply.